Four corners

Just a short comment. I've written before how cliches will develop and then rip through the language spurred on with overuse by news and other writers within hours sometimes. One example I mentioned was the word "roughly" used as an inexact measure as in "roughly five feet." One reporter at the newspaper where I worked used it in that sense and within days the words "approximately" and "about" and any other synonyms disappeared. Every inexact measure written by every writer in the place was qualified by "roughly." There are other examples but that's enough.
     Well, last night I heard what I am betting is a new one. A guest on the Rachel Maddow show talked about Robert Mueller keeping his testimony "within the four corners of his report." This was the first time I had heard but but it came out so easily I am betting it had been said before in the confines of the speaker's offices. The second of the two commenters used it as well. Then Maddow said it in her summation of the show. Then this morning in the talk leading up to Mueller's appearance in Congress I heard four more news heads say it. Then twice during the hearings congressional questioners said it. Ears open for the next few weeks, see how often and how fast it blasts through the American lexicon.
Meanwhile I will try to stick within the four corners of this blog even though they are roughly defined.